USA > North Carolina > The history of North Carolina from the earliest period, Volume I > Part 13
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The popul ition of Carolina was still very inconsidera- ble : in the northern part of the province, there were scattered plantations on both sides of Albemarle sound, and the shores of the rivers that empty into it : in the southern part, there were still a few planters on Cape Fear river, but most of the planters from Barba- does had removed to the shores of Ashley and Cooper rivers, where was now a growing settlement. These, with the habitations of the few Scotch families left by lord Cardross at Port Royal, constituted the whole popula-
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CHAPTER. [1685
tion of the province. The settlement on Ashley and Cooper rivers, had received a small reinforcement by the migration of some Dutch families, on the conquest of the New Netherlands.
Chalmers-History of South Carolina-Edwards.
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CHAPTER X.
The death of Charles II. had put a temporary stop to proceedings against the chartered American colonies : but James II. soon found it expedient to renew them. In July, 1685, the administration of the governor and company of Connecticut was complained of, viz : "they have made laws contrary to the laws of England ; they impose fines on the inhabitants, and convert them to their own use ; they impose an oath of fidelity upon the inhabitants, without administering the oath of supremacy and allegiance, as in their charter is directed ; they deny to the inhabitants the exercise of the religion of the church of England, arbitrarily fining those who refuse to come to their congressional assemblies ; his majesty's subjects inhabiting there, cannot obtain justice in the courts of the colony ; they discourage and exclude from the government all gentlemen of known loyalty, and keep it in the hands of the independent party in the colonv." In consequence of these charges, James or- dered a quo warranto to be issued against the charter of Connecticut, The people perceived the king was in earnest, and their alarm manifested itself in humble solicitations for favor. In the month of October, of the same year, a similar process was sued out against the colonyof Rhode Island. Colonel Kirk's commission not having received the royal seal, before the late king's de-
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mise, Joseph Dudley, a native of Massachusetts, was appointed president of New England. The first post office, was established in the colonies, in the year 1685, and Edward Randolph was appointed deputy post-mas- ter, for New England.
The Spaniards, at St. Augustine, believing that some late attacks, on their people by the Indians, were owing to the ill conduct of some of the Scotch settlers, left by lord Cardross on the island of Port Royal, invaded that part of the colony and laid it waste.
This year, writs of quo warranto were issued, with a view to obtain the fortentures of the charters of Carolina and New Jersey. The proprietors of the first province, prudently bending before a storm, which it seemed vain to resist, eluded the force of a blast, that had laid the charters and government of New England, in ruins ; and offered a treaty of surrender. New Jersey was, not long after, annexed to the government of New England.
The king, intending to establish the same arbitrary rule in New York, as he had designed for New Eng- land, deprived that colony of its immunities. Gover- nor Dongan, hitherto the proprietor's, now the royal governor, was instructed not to allow any printing press; the assembly was abolished, and New York reduced to the condition of a conquered province.
On the 20th of December, Sir Edmund Andros, whom the king had appointed governor of New Eng. land, arrived at Boston. He was instructed to con- tinue the former laws of the country, so far as they were not inconsistent with his commission and instruc- tions, until other regulations were established by the governor and council; to give universal toleration in religion, and encouragement to the Church of England;
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to execute the laws of trade, and prevent frauds in the customs. As it was not imagined that the new order of things would be submitted to, on the part of the col- onists, by choice, a small military establishment was formed, and warlike,were stores) sent over.
In obedience to his instructions, governor Andros, within ten days after his landing, dissolved the govern- ment of Rhode Island; broke its seals, and assumed the administration of that province.
A number of French Protestants, driven from their country, by the revocation of the edict of Nantz, which took place the preceding year, arrived in Boston ; they were kindly received, and a subscription sat a foot, for the use of those who needed relief; they built a small brick church in School street. The greater part of them, however, soon after sought a milder climate, in the pro- vinces of Virginia and Carolina.
The year 1687, is remarkable for the first plan of an insurrection of the blacks on the continent. It took place in the province of Virginia, and in that part of it which is called the northern neck ; it was discovered just in time to prevent its explosion, and lord Effing. ham averted its consequences, b yhe early and strict execution of the laws relating to the police of slaves. John Burke believes their number fell little short of one half of the population of that province.
During the month of April, the king's attorney gene - ral, in England, sued out a writ of quo warranto, against lord Baltimore, the proprietor of Maryland; but no judgment was obtained.
In the month of October, governor Andros, attended by his suite and sixty soldiers, went to Hartford, where the general assembly was in session, and declared the
fall. 200 22 %. 63.
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charter government to be dissolved. The assembly, be- ing called upon to surrender the charter, protracted the discussion that arose, till early candlelight, when, the instrument being brought in and laid on the speaker's table, the lights were instantly extinguished, without any disorder or confusion ensuing; but when the candles were lit, the parchment could not be found. Captain Wadsworth. of Hartford, had silently carried it off, and secreted it in a hollow tree, which, to this day, is regarded with veneration, as the preserver of the con .. stitution of the colony.
Sir Robert Holmes was despatched from England, with a small naval force, and an extraordinary commis- sion, for suppressing pirates in America. The gover- nors of Carolina were instructed to show examples of submission to his power, and to afford every possible assistance to his armament. This project was success- ful, till new causes, not long after, gave rise to piratical adventurers, which required all the continued energy of William and Mary to suppress.
The French, at this time, made their first attempt at a settlement, on the gulf of Mexico. Monsieur de la Salle had returned to France, in 1683, to carry to his sovereign, the news of his discovery, and taking posses- sion, of the Mississippi, and the country at the mouth of that river. Louis XIV., anxious to secure this new acquisition, despatched a small armament, consisting of four vessels, under la Salle, with one hundred soldiers, some artillery, and a number of settlers. La Salle took the old route by the way of the West Indies; he touched at Hispaniola, and unfortunately missing the mouth of the river he was in quest of, he fell two hundred miles to the westward, in the bay of St. Bernard, which he
....
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called the bay of St. Louis: here he built a fort, and Icaving a garrison in it, proceeded easterly, along the coast, in search of the Mississippi; reaching another - river, which he mistook for the one he looked for, and built another fort, on its bank. He then sat off for Can. ada by land, intending to reach it through the river Illi- nois, and proceeded as far as the settlement of Nacog- doches, in the Spanish province of Texas, in the neigh- borhood of which, he was murdered by one of his men, on the 27th of March, 1687; the rest of the party con- tinned their route to Quebec. The Indians fell on the men la Salle had left on the sea shore, and destroyed them all, except a few whom they carried away to their villages. .
It was thought advisable, in 1687, on several ac- counts, particularly the extensive progress the French were making in Canada, to appoint one general gover- nor over New England; the submissive application of the people of Connecticut could no further be regarded, than by allowing them their choice, to be annexed to New York or Massachusetts; they preferred the latter ; and, accordingly, Sir Edmund Andros hav- ing been appointed captain general over all New Eng- land, the charter of Connecticut was surrendered to him at Hartford, in October, 1687, and the colony was an- nexed to Massachusetts, according to the royal promise, through the people's petition ; but the very night of the surrender of it, Samuel Wadsworth, of Hartford, with the assistance of a mob, violently broke into the apart- ments of Sir Edmund, regained, carried off, and hid the tharter in the hollow of an elm tree.
In the year 1688, the distractions and commotions, in the northern part of the county of Albemarle, rose
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to such a height, that the colonists, almost driven to despair, secured the person of governor Sothel, and im- prisoned him, with the view of sending him to England, to answer to the lords proprietors for his crimes ; but, yielding to his entreaties, and his offer to submit their mutual accusations to the assembly, they left him at liberty. The general assembly gave judgment against him on all the charges, and compelled him to abjure the country for twelve months, and the government forever.
King James now united the four colonies of New England, and the provinces of New York and New Jersey, under one government, and appointed Sir Ed- mund Andros captain general and vice admiral, over them, and Francis Nicholson was named his lieutenant. All the powers of government were vested in a gover- nor and council, and the people had no agency in the ad- ministration of affairs, nor any vote in the appointment of officers.
The inhabitants of several towns in Massachusetts, refused to make the assessments, without which, the taxes imposed by the grant of the legislative council under governor Andros, could not be collected. The selectmen of Ipswich came to a resolution, "That, in- asmuch as it is against the privileges of Englishmen to have money raised without their consent, in an assembly or parliament, therefore, they will petition the king, for the liberty of an assembly, before they make any rates." The governor endeavored to procure obedience by prosecutions, and the judges punished several individuals by heavy fines and long imprisonment. Increase Ma- ther, a respectable clergyman, was sent to England, to represent the grievances of the people of New England to the king.
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Early in the following year, accounts of the abdication and departure of the king for France, which had taken place on the 23d of December, reached the continent, and it was rumored that the prince of Orange had, or would soon land in England. Thus, at a time that a revolution was effected at home, the northern colonies gave the parent state the example of another. They had suffered for three years, under a privation of their most valuable rights, and their patience was now exhausted.
Sir Edmund Andros, governor of Massachusetts, imitating the capricious and arbitrary conduct of James, the people could not long brook submission to their sway: having sought in the wilds of America, the secure enjoyment of civil and religious liberty, they were not disposed to see their dearest rights wrested from them, without a struggle to retain them. They had, for several years, suffered the impositions of a tyrannical administration, and the dissatisfaction and indignation which had been gathering was now blown to a flame, by a report of an intended massacre by the governor's guards. On the 18th of May, 1689, the inhabitants of Boston took arms; the people poured in from the coun- try, and the governor, with such of his friends as had been most active, and many other obnoxious persons, were secured and confined. The old magistrates were restored, and the next month the news of the revolution in England, quieted all apprehensions of the conse- quences of what had been done. Sir Edmund was, how- ever, kept in the castle till the month of February, when he was sent to England for trial, and the general court sent with him a committee of several gentlemen, to substantiate the charges against him.
-
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. Most of the members of the council, the princi- pal officers, and the collectors, to the number of about fifty, were likewise seized and confined,
The old magistrates were reinstated ; and calling to their assistance, a number of respectable individuals from the town and county, formed themselves into a " Council for the safety of the people, and the continu- ation of the peace." On the 24th, the magistrates chosen in 1686, subscribed a declaration of their accep- tance of the care in government of the people, until, by directions from England, there might be an orderly set- tlement of government, and on the 29th, William and Mary were proclaimed, with great ceremony, in Boston. An address was sent to their majesties, and they were besought to allow the exercise of government, accord- ing to the charter, till they were pleased to establish a new one. This was acceded to.
The people of Rhode Island, on hearing of the im- prisonment of governor Andros, met at Newport on the 1st of May, voted to resume their charter, and called in their former officers.
Robert Treat, who had been elected governor of Con- necticut, in 1687, when the charter was surrendered to Sir Edmund Andros, was declared still governor of the province. Intelligence was received of an insurrection and the overthrow of governor Andros, at Boston. The new governor summoned the old assembly, who voted the validity of the charter, and directed Samuel Wadsworth to bring it forth, who, attended by the high sheriff and a concourse of people, carried it to the go- vernor; the general court voted their thanks and twenty shillings to the gentleman, for his care and preservation of the charter.
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On receiving information, in New York, of the king's abdication, the principal officers met, in order to consult on the exigencies of the occasion; but, while they were deliberating, Jacob Leisler, at the head of a party of fifty men, took possession of the fort, in the name of the prince of Orange; and in the month of June, William and Mary were proclaimed, and until the arrival of colonel Henry Slaughter, two years after, as royal governor, the province was ruled by a committee of safety, presided by Leisler.
Their majesties were soon after, proclaimed in the other colonies.
Philip Ludwell, of Virginia, who had filled in that province, the office of collector of the customs, and who had suffered for his adherence to governor Berkely, during Bacon's rebellion, came over as governor of the northern part of Carolina.
In the month of November, William Blair was re- ceived in Virginia, as commissary of the bishop of Lon- don, in the English provinces on the continent. The duties of the commissary were analagous to those of a pope's legate. He was representing in the colonies, the right reverend father of the church, and he made visita- tions, enquiring into and correcting the discipline of the churches, and acted in all cases with that supreme eccle- siastical authority, exercised by his superior, himself.
The province of Virginia was at that time much dis- tracted, and ready to break out at the slightest irritation, into open revolt; nothing, says John Burk, had hitherto preserved even the appearance of tranquility; but the revolution in England, and the hopes of redress from a king, elected by the nation, on principles of liberty.
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CHAPTER [1690
General Codrington compelled the French inhabitants of St. Kitts to surrender, and forced eighteen hundred of them to seek refuge in Martinique and Hispaniola.
The ministers found themselves in a perplexing dilemma: if they condemned Andros' administration, the sentence might be drawn into a precedent, and they might seem to encourage rebellion and insurrection in future periods, when circumstances did not render so desperate an expedient necessary. On the other hand, if they should approve of his administration, and cen- sure the conduct of the colonists, it would imply a re- probation of the very measure, which had been pursued in bringing about the revolution in England. It was, therefore, considered prudent to dismiss the business, without coming to a formal decision : the people were accordingly left in the enjoyment of their freedom, and Sir Edmund, in public estimation guilty, escaped cen- sure. Shortly after, he succeeded lord Effingham, in the government of Virginia, in which his conduct ap- pears to have been correct.
While Louis XIV., in his attempt to support king James, kindled the flames of war in Europe, the count of Frontenac, his governor in Canada, spurred on the Indians to aid him in annoying the English in America. ' On the 29th of June, a party of Indians came to the town of Sorell, in the province of New Hampshire, and killed or captured about fifty persons. Soon after, they routed the garrison at Oyster river, where they slew more than twenty of the inhabitants. On the 28th of August, they took the fort at Pemaquid, and committed great depredations in the province of Maine. In the mean time, a host of privateers sailed out of Acadia, captured a number of English vessels, and kept the
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sea-coast in constant alarm. Nor were these excursions stopped by the severity of the weather. On the 8th of February, 1690, the enemy fell on, and committed great slaughter in, Schenectady, on the Mohawk river. On the 18th of March, another party made an attack on Salmon falls, a settlement on the river which divides the province of New Hampshire from that of Maine. They slew thirty, and carried away fifty-four of the inhabi- tants into captivity, setting fire to the houses and mills ; and in May, another party destroyed the settlements at Casco.
The general court of Massachusetts now determined to retaliate, and make an attempt on Port Royal. Un- der the command of Sir William Phips, eight vessels were accordingly fitted out, and he sailed with seven or eight hundred men, on the 28th of April : the fort of Port Royal, being incapable of resisting this force, sur- rendered with little or no resistance, and Sir William possessed himself of all the coast from Port Royal to the settlements of New England, and was induced by this success to attempt the reduction of Canada. Two thousand men were to march up the lakes, and thence to Montreal, while a fleet was attacking Quebec. Thir- teen sail were collected, the largest of which was a 44 gun ship. They sailed from Nantasket on the 9th of August. Success did not attend the attempt. The army which was to proceed up the country not being provided with batteaux and provisions, retreated with- out crossing the lakes. The fleet was early discovered in the river, and was not before Quebec till the 5th of October. Three days after, all the effective men, about twelve hundred in number, were landed, but re-embark- ed on the 11th, without success. The extreme cold
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and tempestuous weather compelled Sir William to retreat.
So fond were the hopes of success at Boston, that the general court had not made any provision for the payment of the troops, imagining the capture of Que- bec would have rendered such a provision useless. The clamours of the disbanded soldiery rose so high, that an insurrection was dreaded. In this extremity, an emission of paper money was resorted to. It was the first that was issued in the American colonies.
A great number of French refugees were this year sent, at the king's expense, to the province of Virginia, and settled themselves on James river ; others purchas- ed land from the proprietors of Carolina, and settled on Pamplico and Santce rivers.
Doctor Cox, to whom the title of Sir Robert Heath, under the patent of the year 1629, to Carolana, had passed through several conveyances, laid a memorial before king William, in which he represented the great expense he had been at, in discovering and settling Carolina; but his claim, though, as it is said, incontesti- bly proven, was disregarded. His son, Daniel Cox, who had resided fourteen years in the country, maintain- ed his father's claim, and published a full account of it.
Seth Stothel, countenanced by a powerful faction, in the southern part of Carolina, and presuming on his authority, as one of the lords proprietors, made his ap- pearance in Charleston, and seized the reins of govern- ment. His popularity and power were of short dura- tion. The assembly, two years after, compelled him to abjure the county, and government. The lords pro -. prietors, says Hewit, dissented from all the laws passed during his government.
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The settlement at New Providence, in the Bahama islands, being already considerable. a regular govern- ment was established there, by the lords proprietors of Carolina, and Cadwallader Jones was sent as governor.
The island of St. Kitts was, this year, reconquered from the French, by the English, under colonel Cod- rington, and the white male inhabitants, amounting to about eighteen hundred, were sent, with their women and children, to Hispaniola and Martinico.
On the 25th of January, in the following year, the town of York was destroyed; fifty of the inhabitants killed, and one hundred of them made prisoners. The province of New Hampshire suffered so much by the incursions of the French and Indians, that it was on the eve of being abandoned.
On the 14th of May, 1692, Sir William Phips ar- rived at Boston, with the new charter of the province, and a commission, constituting him governor of Mas- sachusetts, and captain general of the colonies of Con. necticut and Rhode Island. In the latter colony, he vainly attempted to exercise his authority. The pro- vince, designated by the old charter, contained the whole of the old colony of Massachusetts, that of Ply. mouth, the provinces of Maine and New Hampshire, and all the country between these provinces as far north as the river St. Lawrence. The new charter did not secure to the colonists all the privileges, which they had en- joyed under the old. The legislature endeavored to make amends for this, by an act in the nature of a bill of rights, or magna charter; but it was disallowed by the king.
The provinces of Rhode Island and Connecticut were left in the enjoyment of their first charter.
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Sir William Phips, according to his instructions, proceeded to Pemaquid, where he built a fortress, on a larger scale, and superior in the execution of the work, to any hitherto constructed by the English in America. It was named fort William Henry.
A patent was this year laid before the legislature of Virginia, for establishing a general post-office in Virgi- nia, an act was passed to give it effect ; but such was the dispersed situation of the planters, that the project failed in its execution.
Governor Ludwell being sent by the lords propric- tors to take the command of the southern part of the province, his authority devolved on Alexander Lilling- ton, and, on the succeeding year, on Thomas Harvey, as deputy governor.
The Indians in the southern part of Carolina were now at war between themselves, and governor Ludwell adopted, as a mean of security for the whites, the plan of setting one tribe against the other. Besides securing the friendship of some tribes, which he employed to carry on war against the others, he encouraged all to bring captives to Charleston, for the purpose of trans- portation to the West Indies. This year, twenty Che- rokee chiefs came in, with proposals of friendship, soli- citing the assistance of government against the Esau and Coosaw tribes, who had taken some of their people prisoners. They complained at the same time of the outrages of the Savanna tribe, who, contrary to former regulations established among themselves, had sold some of their countrymen ; and begged the governor to return the captives, and protect them against such insidious enemies. The governor declared his inten- tion to live in peace and friendship with the Cherokees,
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and to do every thing in his power for their protection and defence. The prisoners, he observed, had already been shipped away to the West Indies, and could not be recalled, but he engaged to take care for the future, - and that a stop should be put to the custom of sending them out of the country.
Both parts of the province were still in a confused state. After the fairest trial, the form of government, proposed by John Locke, proved totally unfit for the wants and state of the province ; the people declared to the lords proprietors, they would rather be governed by the powers granted, without regard to the fundamental constitutions, and the lords proprietors granted their request. Thus, says Chalmers, at the end of twenty- three years, perished the labour of Mr. Locke. Then was abrogated, at the entreaty of the Carolinians, who had scarcely known one day of enjoyment, a system of laws, which had been intended to remain ever sacred ; which far from having answered their end, introduced only disputes, faction, and disorder, that were ended by the dissolution of the proprietors' government. The Carolinian annals show to all projectors the vanity of at- tempting to make laws for a people, whose will, pro- ceeding from true principles, must be forever the supreme law.
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